Comparing a disease-specific and a generic health-related quality of life instrument in subjects with asthma from the general population

Table 1 Characteristics of participants of the SAPALDIA cohort according to the completion of the HRQL instruments

	AQLQ Group A*	AQLQ + SF36 Group B*	No AQLQ, no SF36 Group C*
Age, years ± SD	48.7 ± 14.0	47.2 ± 14.2	49.3 ± 15.5
Male gender, %	49.2	47.5	45.7
BMI, ± SD	22.3 ± 6.0	22.4 ± 6.3	20.9 ± 8.5
Low level of education, %	19.1	19.0	14.2*
Current smokers, %	17.2	17.6	27.2^†
Formers smokers, %	31.7	33.5	33.3
Never smokers, %	50.8	48.9	37.0^‡
Cough, %	20.2	16.7	27.2^§
Phlegm, %	15.3	12.2	19.8
Wheeze, %	60.7	57.0	51.9
Dyspnea, %	24.0	21.7	18.5
Depression,%	12.2	12.7	13.0
Exercise limitation, %	24.8	24.3	8.6^€
GP visits, %	34.7	33.9	27.8
Lung specialist visits, %	16.4	14.5	8.0^¥
FVC, % of predicted value ± SD	94.9 ± 14.6	96.5 ± 13.3	94.7 ± 15.0
FEV₁, % of predicted value ± SD	85.3 ± 19.7	87.1 ± 18.4	90.2 ± 16.5
FEF_25–75, % of predicted value ± SD	69.8 ± 32.1	71.1 ± 30.8	81.7 ± 26.8
Use of asthma medication during last 3 months,%	38.8	32.5	12.3^€
Number of asthma attacks in last 12 months, median (25^th to 75^th percentile)	3 (1–12)	3 (1–12)	3 (1–10)
Number of asthma attacks in last 3 months, median (25^th to 75^th percentile)	2 (1–7)	2 (1–6)	2 (1–4)

Group A: Participants who had completed the Asthma quality of life questionnaire (AQLQ) only; group B: participants who had completed the AQLQ and the short-form 36 questionnaire (SF36); group C: participants who had not completed the AQLQ nor the SF36.
BMI: body mass index; GP: general practitioner; FVC: forced vital capacity; FEV₁: forced expiratory volume at one second; FEF_25–75: forced expiratory flow measured between 25% and 75% of the forced vital capacity. *p = 0.01 and p < 0.05 compared to groups A and B, respectively; ^†p = 0.01 and p < 0.05 compared to groups A and B, respectively; ^‡p < 0.01 and p < 0.05 compared to groups A and B, respectively;^§p = 0.01 compared to group B; ^€p < 0.0001 compared to groups A and B;^¥p = 0.01 and p = 0.05 compared to groups A and B, respectively.

ISSN: 1477-7525